When Ukrainian farmer Mykola Olytskyy partnered with a Polish grain trader last December thanks to mutual acquaintances, he felt a glimmer of hope. Olytskyy runs an agricultural business in Novolabun, in Ukraine’s western region of Khmelnytskyi, where wheat, corn and barley are cultivated. He hoped selling grain to the Polish market would bring financial security. Poland and other EU member states have shut their borders to Ukrainian grain, plunging Ukraine’s farmers into financial hardship and uncertainty. Is Ukraine being left alone ?